Label:
Roadrunner Records
Release Date:
21/08/2006

It’s turning out to be quite a year for HARDcore. After recent, decent efforts from Terror and Hatebreed, Detroit bruisers Walls Of Jericho have returned and With Devils Amongst Us All is another that ticks all the right boxes - brutality, anger, breakdowns, furious punk anguish,_ etc_ - and punches the right buttons with PUNCH being the operative word.

With a rhythm section that is tighter than a very, very small gnat’s arse and rapid-fire machine gun guitars, Candace Kucsulain has the perfect base from which to form her fearful, unearthly screams.

While opening track ‘Trigger Full Of Promises’ _is the unlikeliest love story this side of _Romeo and Juliet, the double-kick and chugged guitar lines make for some awesome headbang-able breakdowns, and more classic WoJ is found on ‘Hope To Die’. The super-fast, thrashy guitar work and unambiguously perfect drumming sets the tone for the majority of the this top-drawer album.

Standout track _‘The Haunted’ _begins with eerie, melancholic chanting that soon transforms into a deathly thrashed-out affair. The punk-as-fuck call-to-arms chorus will get fists flying into faces or into the air. Either way: FISTS.

The lady also does mellow, of course, and _‘No Saving Me’ _is a completely unexpected and welcome change of pace that gives you time to lick your wounds. Somehow Kucsulain’s smooth vocals are almost as strong as her more familiar caterwauling that, in an amazingly cathartic turn of events, reappears later in the song. Not only does this ballad break up our Candace's relentless and slightly tiresome cacophony, but it may also be a taster of much more melodic things to come.

At the moment, though, Walls Of Jericho still make music to fight to. Listen to this, and fight you shall. Be warned.